Kayak fishing in January? Better be hardcore to fish with us! Due to Polar Vortex(extreme cold front), entrants were allowed to vote to reschedule or modify the format to allow bank fishing, huge boundaries and multiple launches instead of our normal shotgun launch. Baits were still limited to those provided by club, though difficult to enforce with angles spread out over many, many miles. I did not pre-fish Friday because I knew conditions would be radically different Saturday, but did arrive in time to dine and hang with some of the most accomplished kayak anglers in this part of North Amer ..read more

Friday Slept in till 4, as fall is here and sun coming up later. Stopped at State Oil for defication break and ice an ran into Lance Burgess, exchange pleasantries, of course. Ran into horrible traffic caused by construction shift change and a wreck. Planned on launching at Joshua’s but first light met me at Port Sulphur. Well, the championship is near so needed to do some scouting anyway. Went in a direction I’d never been and found some interesting areas. Caught tons of rat reds, baby trout, white trout all over but not the quality I was searching for. Yielded 9 legal trout, a slot drum(firs ..read more

So I’m not really a fan of fishing Terrebonne Parish as I’ve never had great success there. 2023 was the first time in several year’s that I hadn’t qualified for the BCKFC Championship by Trout Challenge. I told friends that I didn’t care, which is true, and I probably wouldn’t fish Rumble unless redfish were calling my name all day. I pre-fished hard in 4 locations, never finding good conditions or the kind of fish needed to win. AOY Standings were published the week before the tournament and I was in very close contention for a Wildcard slot. Many people reached out to me the leading up to t ..read more

Got in bed Friday night around 8 to prepare for a long day of fishing. My son and his friends woke me up at 1030 whooping it up on the patio, lovely. Took me at least an hour to get back to sleep. Saturday Rolled out around 3 with full cup of coffee, on a mission. Iced down with SloMelt and launched at 530 and ran into Steve Lessard about 300 yards from the launch, who already had an 18.5″ trout.  Fabulous. After exchanging pleasantries,  I moved to my first spot, nada. I moved a little and ran into Justin Hebert who allowed me to fish in an area where he was catching trout on topwa ..read more

Cruised down Thursday after work and yes, I stopped on side the road to cast a few times. I was utterly disturbed seeing a flounder and trout that a shore fisherman had left on the ground. Shameful! Rolled into Bridgeside right at dusk and was very pleased to see Eric Stacy, who’s been absent for over a year. Then saw Wade Barbay who has also been absent! So great to see all the members at these events! Hung out for a while, then unloaded my gear and got in bed just before Jonathan Aucoin arrived. We spoke briefly and I was out like a light. Friday Jonathan and I had some Cafe Bustello and di ..read more

So this year Trout Challenge happened in spring, instead of fall, and returned to the east side of the Mississippi River. Tournament Nazi made Boundaries from Lake Ponchartrain to Delacroix, a huge area, certainly, but in all that real estate, only 5 launches were used to my knowledge, with 57 entries. Either end of Hwy 11 on Lake P, Campos, Pips and Hopedale Marina were it. I launched at the northshore end of Hwy 11 with about 7 others way too early, and exchanged pleasantries. LateNightCake woke me up at 327 asking about some reef. Lovely. I’d scouted the trestles well over the past few wee ..read more

So, when I got frustrated shore fishing and started looking for kayaks, I found Bayou Coast. It was before FB was the main means of club communications and the website had tons of information. I researched past posts and narrowed my search down to 3 brands based on reports written by members. It took a couple weeks, but I found a fire sale on a used Jackson Cuda 14 in my budget. Gotta start somewhere, right. It took me a couple weeks to get it rigged and procure a roof rack, so I started fishing. Yeah, I rolled out of the Cuda on the first hookset, but didn’t loose anything and was able to la ..read more

Friday Rolled out with hot coffee early. Made my usual stop at Cash Magic(ly dissapears) for pit stop, coffee refill and Slo Melt. Talked to several members while driving down and cruised right past the Minamalist Zone. I really didn’t want anyone to know where I was fishing for the tournament, as I’d been scouting for weeks. Combat launched on LA1 and was joined by Josh Redd and Jonathan Aucoin. We didn’t go far and got on some trout action for a little while. Water was crystal clear to 4 feet which made the trout very spooky. The bite slowed just as Wade Barbay and Tiffany Marcello showed u ..read more

Rolled into the fabulous Galliano Inn Friday, just in time for dinner. I was bunking with Josh Redd and Ryan Allemand. Butch Ridgedell was next door. Frank Lee and Jerry Cottrell were 2 doors down. Chris and Janie Murphy were at the other end. They declined dinner as Chris had broken two rods riding the bulls and was hunting replacements. The snooty board members were staying a couple miles away but were napping late, so didn’t attend. We all rolled into MeMaws and settled down. The waitress does a funny trick with an empty bowl like she’s spilling it on you and Jerry was the unlucky subject ..read more

So July has been outstanding! I went to Chicago for the weekend of the 4th but got back home at 145AM on the 4th, washed my face, changed clothes and went fishing with decent results. The next 2 weekends I was able to fish Saturday and Sunday both weekends, laying waste to many trout and aggravating several charter captains at the Bridgeside cleaning table. The first weekends fish were given to the guys I work with. One mentioned that those were some huge trout fillets and asked if he could come with me. He didn’t like the answer. The next weekends fish went to family and a couple customers. T ..read more